1. play to win
2. play to draw
3. play to lose
4. play to spoil
5. play "against the text"
6. there is an ethic of competition

We seek a mindful player who can provide good feedback to the game designer. There are several roles that a player can inhabit. The default role is to play to win. We have been taught that honest competitors should play to win, and that any other approach is suspect.

It is an oversimplification to assume that all players, at all times, will play to win. It is possible that players will find meaningful reason to play to a draw, to play to lose, or to play in such a way as to spoil some other player's victory. There is even an emerging critical practice of seeking ways to play "against the text", that is to say in ways that were unintended or unimagined by the game designer. There are uses for each of these roles in assessing game play and game balance.

To give any game a thourough assessment a game should be played several times. To fully understand the game play potential of the system, the play testers could inhabit a different role each time the game is played. The first time both could to play to win. The second, one could play to win and another to play to spoil. This latter can test how robust the system is.

Playing against the text is an emerging critical method. It requires that a player know the rules of the game deeply. It is a very subversive form of play in which the player attempts to play against the game designer. [author's note, this paragraph needs to be extended further]